


The Broken Sparrow

by hangstzo



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angela "Mercy" Ziegler is an Angel, Angst, Blackwatch Era, Blackwatch Genji Shimada, But we still love him, Flashbacks, Gen, Hanzo needs a Hug, Hospitals, Jesse is Annoying, People need to stop bothering Angela, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Stream of Consciousness, Yeah with that tag you know this is gonna be heavy, gabe is a dad, genji needs a hug, not really he did try to kill his brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 02:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11568429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hangstzo/pseuds/hangstzo
Summary: Genji wakes up in an Overwatch medical facility, trying to come to terms with what his brother did to him and how on earth he is going to get through this.Also, people need to stop bothering Angela's patients.





	The Broken Sparrow

Genji was not sure if he was dead or not. He drifted in and out of the waking world, never feeling pain, but then again never feeling anything. The elders in the Shimada clan used to tell stories of _Yomi_ , the Japanese land of the dead. The children of the clan would gather around them every week to listen to the stories, supposed to sit in a revered silence and respect all the words of the elders. Hanzo always dutifully paid attention while Genji slouched beside him, fidgeting with his sleeves or whatever he could get his hands on.

He didn’t remember very much about the stories but the mythology behind _Yomi_ had always interested him. He remembered that it was impossible to return from the land of the dead to that of the living after a certain point, but Genji couldn’t remember what that point was. If it was a real place, he didn’t think he was there yet, or perhaps he could still return from it. He felt like he was just asleep, and dreaming. Unless that was what death was really like, no one really knows about what happens after you die, do they?

**(He had rarely listened to the elders’ stories, having had better things to do than sit for hours listening to fiction)**

Sometimes Genji opened his eyes to find an angel in front of him. At first he had thought it was his mother, even tried to call out to her but couldn’t form the words. She had died when he was five and all he had to remember his mother was a tiny photograph of her holding him and Hanzo as toddlers. He had such precious few memories of her. But after a while, his eyes adjusted to the lights and he realised he was wrong, the angel was not his mother. She was radiating gold, her hair shining in an unseen light. Sometimes she spoke to him but he couldn’t hear her. All he heard was-

\--- 

_“Please…”_

_Hanzo’s dragons roared as they sped towards Genji. He was on his knees, defenceless. There was no way he could summon up his own dragon in time, though he could feel it under his skin, twisting and writhing in fear as its siblings came to attack. His brother’s face was blank and emotionless. Why, why was he doing this?_

**_(Genji knew the answer to that, just never expected his elder brother to do it)_ **

_"Hanzo!" His cries went unanswered and he covered his face as the dragons approached and met their target. Everything was on fire. He screamed as the dragons hit and screamed as a blade sliced up through his back and his own dragon screamed and screamed and-_

\--- 

When Genji woke up, the angel was gone. In her place was pain, endless unbearable pain. He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even scream. All he could do was look at a grey ceiling as his whole body burned. Death would be more merciful than this, this horrific state of being. Or maybe this was hell and he had been damned to spend the rest of his miserable life in this constant state of pain and fear. 

He didn’t know how long he stayed like that, staring at an unfamiliar roof, unable to do anything. At least it’s not dark, he told himself. He and Hanzo had never really liked the dark, not after their mother died. But it was isolation that Genji feared the most. He was a social person, he didn’t do well by himself. It could have been hours, maybe even days before he saw another human face. The pain was still there but he was trying to ignore it. There was something more pressing on his mind. 

He couldn’t feel his dragon. 

Growing up, the dragon had been his constant companion. It felt alien to him now, not being able to sense Soba under his skin, just around his heart. He had found comfort in the spirit during his bad days back in Hanamura. Being the unneeded heir to a crime family was a lonely life. The Shimada brothers didn’t have any friends other than each other and it wasn’t until Genji started sneaking out that he even met other people.

The first time he’d gone to the arcade had almost been a revelation. There were so many people, and most of them were his age! Genji couldn’t remember the last time he’d spoken to someone the same age as him. Soba hadn’t liked it at first, settling in his stomach and twisting. It did that when it was uncomfortable and the resulting sensation always made him feel off. Alcohol helped rid him of the feeling and lift his spirit. He fell into a group of others his age and it wasn’t long before he was sneaking out almost every night and partying until he found himself waking up in an unfamiliar house. He still managed to get home in time for morning meditation, but Hanzo always noticed-

\--- 

_“Where have you been?” Hanzo was glaring from his bedroom door, his hair still messy from sleep as Genji attempted to sneak back into his room._

_Genji cracked his knuckles, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He gave his brother a wide grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know anija? Anyway, I’m here now aren’t I.”_

_Hanzo scowled and shook his head, wrinkling his nose. “Go take a shower. You smell like the inside of a liquor store.”_

**_(He managed to drag his brother out with him one night. Hanzo spent almost the entire night at the bar, diluting Genji’s drinks)_ **

**_(It wasn’t the alcohol Hanzo should have been worrying about)_ **

\--- 

“Genji? Genji can you hear me?”

The angel was back. She leaned over him and he could finally make out her face. She was pale and blonde with bags under her blue eyes. The angel continued to talk to him. “My name is Angela Ziegler, head of medical research at Overwatch. I’m going to run a couple of tests on you now you’re conscious.”

**(Okay, so he almost definitely was not dead)**

Overwatch was one of the organisations the Shimadas tried to stay well away from. The clan knew they were on their tail and Genji vaguely remembered his father and Hanzo having stressful meetings over what to do about it. He had once ran into an agent staking out the castle while returning from a house party. The poor guy looked vaguely worried when he saw him, but let him pass. The yakuza member in his head reminded him that he was at a huge advantage here, he could gather intelligence on Overwatch and report back to the clan. Then they’d accept him back into the family for sure.

**(He had never listened to that little voice in his head)**

Suddenly, pain surged through Genji’s body and he began to scream. Something started beeping rapidly by his head and the angel-Angela-rushed over, trying to sooth him while frantically pressing buttons. “I’m sorry Genji. Your body is rejecting the painkillers, I need to change the levels…” She trailed off into German, a language he understood but was in too much pain to bother listening. He wished Hanzo had had the foresight or even the mercy to finish the job properly. Or perhaps this was what he had wanted anyway, to let Genji live a life barely even worth living. He was so wrapped up in the pain and the fear that he barely heard someone else enter the room.

“Howdy Angie, Gabe wanted to know how the new recruit was doin’.”

“Can’t you see how he is Jesse? My patient is in pain, let me help him with none of your interruptions!”

“Whoa there doc, how long’s it been since ya slept?”

“ _Jesse_!”

The owner of the new voice, Jesse, seemed to disappear after the doctor began shouting at him in rapid German. Genji moaned, trying to move his head, trying to move any part of his body. All he could do was scream but the screams and whimpers came out strangled. Everything felt wrong and his voice did not sound like his own. And he still couldn’t feel Soba. He was exhausted but the pain was too intense for him to fall asleep. Angela was still running tests, trying to talk to him, but he couldn’t reply.

“Okay Genji, the painkillers should be kicking in now,” Angela informed him just as his pain began to subside. It was still there, just less disruptive. This kind of medical tech was more advanced than anything he had heard of, but then again she had said she was head of medical research. The doctor came back into his line of sight. She did look tired and Genji wondered how long she had been working on him. Her hair was messy and there were dark bags under her eyes. Hanzo sometimes looked like that for weeks, staying in his room unless his father needed him. Genji got in trouble for trying to keep him off duty but mostly he tried his best to look after him-

\--- 

_Hanzo was getting bad days again. Genji could always tell, his brother would arrive for meditation with his hair loose and a shadow of stubble, unusual for the normally well presented twenty-six year old. He would head back up to his room immediately afterwards, not taking his breakfast. This would sometimes continue for weeks at a time. The pressure of running the Shimada empire must have been getting to him._

_After eating his own, Genji filled another plate with Hanzo’s usual breakfast and sneaked upstairs. He had always been better at moving silently. When he reached his brother’s door he didn’t hesitate to open it. “Hanzo? I brought you some breakfast.”_

_“I’m not hungry ani, take it back to the kitchen. And leave me alone.” This was the same answer he always gave and it didn’t stop Genji from worrying. Instead, he set the plate down on a desk and walked over to Hanzo’s bed where his brother sat staring out of the window. There a lost look in his eyes that strengthened Genji’s decision to stay right where he was. Hanzo groaned. “Genji, please. I told you to go.”_

_“Nah. You’re not yourself today brother, I don’t want you to be alone.”_

_Genji sat down beside him, bumping his shoulder against Hanzo’s. The elder Shimada looked over at him in surprise, before closing those sad eyes and leaning against him. “You are too good to me Genji. I’m not worthy of you.”_

_“Shush aniki, we’re a team aren’t we?”_

**_(Genji didn’t notice the soft sound Hanzo made as he buried his head in his shoulder. He was shaking)_ **

**_(The next time he would see that lost look was when Hanzo killed his brother)_ **

\--- 

Angela always tried so hard not to get emotional when it came to her patients. As a frontline medic, she had seen horrific injuries during the Crisis and had performed amputations on the battlefield where the only painkillers she had access to was whiskey. She had sat with dying soldiers as they babbled deliriously about their families, telling her all about their children, begging her to give them their last words. It was rare that she ever cried. Crying only upset her patients more.

When the Blackwatch agents returned from Hanamura, Angela had been told to ready the operating theatre immediately. She assumed someone, probably Rhodes, had caused some sort of minor injury, probably a head injury that would need stitches or a badly broken bone. Blackwatch were constantly injuring themselves in ridiculous ways, both on missions and off duty. She really had to talk to Gabriel about his agents’ views of self preservation someday.

**(She didn’t even want to think about how many times she had patched up Jesse)**

Barely even minutes after Angela had organised the operating theatre and her team, Gabriel and a few other Blackwatch agents carried her patient into the room. It took every ounce of strength she had not to cry at the sight of him. The man, practically a boy, was covered in blood gushing out of a large cut at the base of his neck. He was a mangled mess of a person, thankfully completely unconscious, and would surely need more help than she and her team could give him. “Gabriel, contact Lindholm, ask about the new prosthetics,” Angela ordered, trying to stop the boy from bleeding but oh, there’s just so much _blood._ The Blackwatch commander nodded before being shooed out of the room by one of the surgeons.

Angela didn’t leave the operating theatre for three days. She worked nonstop on the boy, Genji, using as many of the techniques she knew, both traditional and advanced. His injuries were so extensive they almost lost him twice, first from the loss of blood and then from cardiogenic shock. It took a full day to even get him close to stable and the next two were spent trying to salvage what was left of his limbs and fit temporary prosthetics. Torbjörn had promised to get the prototype armour they had been working on together to the Swiss base as soon as he had finished rushing the final tests. 

**(Truthfully, Angela didn’t know if Genji could last that long)**

\--- 

**OVERWATCH MEDICAL FACILITY - PATIENT REPORT**

**DOCTOR IN RESIDENCE:** Doctor Angela Ziegler

**PATIENT NAME:** Genji Shimada

**DOB:** 6/11/2041

**AGE:** 23

**NATIONALITY:** Japanese

**SEX:** M

**CAUSE OF INJURY:** Unknown

**INJURY/INJURIES:** Severed spinal cord-reconstruction needed

                             Punctured lungs

                             Shattered ribs

                             Severe skull fracture-reconstruction needed

                             Loss of both legs

                             Severe nerve damage in left arm-reconstruction needed

                             Severe damage to jaw-reconstruction needed

                             Shattered right arm

_For more details on injuries see PATIENT’s_ attached file

\--- 

Genji must have passed out again. He woke to the sound of arguing coming from somewhere near the bottom of his bed. Still half dozing, it took a while for him to manage to make out what was being said.

“I can’t believe you did this Gabriel. Did you even have the boy’s consent to... do _this_?”

“The boy was _dying_ Jackie, what choice did I have? And it was Dr Ziegler who authorised the surgeries!”

“Keep me out of this.”

“What is he going to do when he wakes up? He’s a _Shimada_ , Reyes! They’re trained to kill-“

“He’s just a kid Jack! What the fuck did you expect me to _do_ , let him die in a heap in Hanamura? I can’t do that, I couldn’t leave him.”

Genji didn’t understand. What had happened to him? He had thought Overwatch had brought him in to interrogate him over his clan. He needed to see what they had done to him. With a soft groan he lifted his head, hearing a soft mechanical whirring sound as he did so. He lifted his arm to try and steady himself but... nothing happened. Genji couldn’t feel his right arm. And now that he was thinking about it, he couldn’t feel the rest of his body. He tried to move his legs, nothing. Panic gripped him as he desperately tried to move.

**(He wanted Soba)**

“Genji! Genji calm down.” Angela was by his side, holding him down. “I’m sorry, I should have shown you earlier. Gabriel, help me move him?”

Another man, Gabriel, came to Genji’s other side. “Hey _niño_ ,” he said, his voice soothing. It reminded him of his father whenever he had gone to him with a nightmare as a child. “I’m so sorry about all this.” Together, the strangers helped Genji into a sitting position, Angela still talking to herself in German and Gabriel apologising in Spanish.

As soon as Genji saw what had become of him, he froze, staring down at himself in horror. He couldn’t feel his legs because they were gone, along with most of his body. In their place was metal plating and tubes covering almost everything except his left arm and shoulder, but that was tightly bandaged. He began to hyperventilate, breathing too quickly for lungs that were no longer his own. This was a panic attack, something he hadn’t experienced since he was fourteen.

“Breathe for me Genji,” Gabriel sat on the bed beside him, forcing Genji to look at him. He looked uncomfortable. There was another man standing by the wall, probably the Jack who had been speaking earlier, who was shaking his head as he watched them. “I know this must be terrifying for you but it’s going to be okay. You’re in the best hands with Angela over there.”

“ _What have you done to me?_ ” Genji couldn’t help the frightened Japanese words from coming out of his mouth. His voice sounded strange, wrong, synthetic. They had even mutilated his _voice_. He closed his eyes, hoping it would all be normal when he opened them.

**(If not even his voice had survived, what hope was there for Soba?)**

“ _Saved your life.”_ The other man, Jack, moved over, replying in Japanese. The sound of the familiar words comforted Genji somewhat but his breathing remained erratic and panicked. Jack continued, “I’m sorry, I don’t know much Japanese. Gabriel brought you in, Blackwatch found you after the fight. We want you to join us, Genji, we’ve been trying to… bring down the Shimada empire for a while. _”_

“Are you trying to _recruit_ him?” Angela sounded outraged. “Five minutes ago he was screaming and he’s still having a panic attack and you’re trying to get him to join Overwatch? I want the two of you out, let me look after my patient!”

Genji was quiet, trying to match his breathing to that of Gabriel’s, who was still sitting beside him. He was considering Jack’s offer. Opening his eyes, he looked down his new body. The Shimada clan had done this to him. Hanzo had done this to him. His own _family_ had reduced him to this, this unnatural _cyborg_ version of himself. They were the ones who had destroyed his life, who had possibly killed Soba in the process. Someone had to pay for what had happened to him and if that was to be his clan, who had never cared for him in the first place, then so be it. “I’ll do it,” he said eventually, his synthetic voice practically dripping with anger, “I’ll help you.”

**Author's Note:**

> TRANSLATIONS  
> I'm pretty sure all of the Japanese used here is all some form of brother.
> 
> I actually love Genji if it is difficult to tell from this! Sorry for any sadness caused by this fic, which ended up being way longer than planned. I also love Soba, who will come back I promise.  
> If you want to shout at me over this, I'm [on tumblr](http://picturefirelizards.tumblr.com/)


End file.
